1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera and, more particularly, to a camera capable of freely selecting a pseudo telephoto mode and a panorama mode in addition to an ordinary photographing mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
So-called panorama size printing in which the aspect ratio of printing is changed to obtain an imaging field horizontally longer than an ordinary imaging field has conventionally been spreading because it has a specific interesting imaging field effect.
Furthermore, a technique is also developed to perform trimming photographing by specifying a trimming range which is narrower than that of an ordinary photographing mode with which an ordinary photographing range is photographed.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Nos. 61-223831, 61-285432, and 61-295534 disclose the following techniques. Namely, after the zoom ring is rotated so that the zoom lens reaches the wide-angle end, when the zoom ring is further rotated, it is set at a panorama switching position, thereby enabling panorama photographing. These techniques provide a pseudo telephoto mode and a trimming mode. These techniques also include a technique for easily obtaining a picture having a telephoto effect without requiring a complicated photographing optical system.
Also, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2-306229 discloses a technique with which a powered electric zoom lens is automatically moved to the wide-angle end when the panorama mode is selected.
Regarding the technique concerning limitation of the trimming mode, a technique disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 62-50745 for limiting the trimming magnification by means of the film speed, a technique disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 64-55544 for prohibiting trimming when a signal indicating that the object is outside the interlocked range is generated by an automatic focusing apparatus, and the like are available.
With the above techniques, however, if the powered zoom lens is merely moved to the wide-angle end, although a panorama picture can be obtained, a specific interesting imaging field effect different from what is obtained by a picture having an ordinary aspect ratio cannot be obtained with the ordinary zoom range. Then, an image enlarging ratio in printing is increased in the pseudo telephoto mode, so that the printing image quality can be easily degraded.
Also, in panorama size printing, the image enlarging ratio in printing is large, so that a problem similar to that occurring in the pseudo telephoto mode may undesirably arise.
In addition, if it is difficult to identify whether the current mode is the optical zoom mode or the pseudo telephoto mode the camera, permission/non-permission of the panorama mode may be erroneously recognized, or the printing quality may be unexpectedly degraded, leading to complaints of the user.